Although the Defense Department denied having a role
in the presence of the adjuvant squalene in the bloodstreams of gulf-war veterans, a GAO
report raises questions about that.

In a surprisingly abrasive report released
March 29, the General Accounting Office concluded -- and so recommended to Congress --
that the Defense Department immediately should begin studying the discovery of antibodies
in the blood of sick Persian Gulf War veterans to a compound called squalene. The object
of such studies would be to determine if squalene, however it got into the bloodstream, is
a contributing factor in gulf-war illness. . . . . The GAO report follows by a week a report in Insight
detailing final laboratory results from a two-year study conducted by the prestigious
Tulane School of Medicine in New Orleans (see "Breakthrough on Gulf War
Illness," April 19). That study confirmed the presence of the squalene antibodies in
sick veterans of the Persian Gulf War era -- antibodies found in the blood of those who
served overseas as well as of those vets who never left U.S. soil during that conflict.. . . . Squalene is an experimental adjuvant used to speed
the immune system. It has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Tulane's
research was conducted by the widely respected immunologist Robert Garry, and his findings
were peer-reviewed. According to Dr. Garry and to Dr. Russell B. Wilson of Autoimmune
Technologies LLC, a firm hired by Tulane to market its patented protocol for the test, the
presence of the squalene antibodies points to some outside source. They suggest, for
example, experimental injections.. . . . "Yes, it's pretty significant," Wilson
tells Insight. "We're not saying we know how [the antibodies] got [in the sick
soldiers], but we are saying we have proof positive of an objective marker that they do
exist." Garry agrees, adding that it's up to the Congress and the Department of
Defense, or DOD, to investigate further, because "we now can confirm [the squalene
antibodies] do exist [in the blood of the sick vets] and that further testing certainly is
in order to find out why, because it would be extremely remote that such antibodies would
appear as a result of natural causes.". . . . When Insight first reported the preliminary lab
results showing these antibodies, the DOD dismissed the findings. Because the department
never used squalene in any medication or vaccine given to gulf-war soldiers, let alone
experimented with the substance, officials contended, the DOD would be foolish to conduct
an independent analysis.. . . . Now the General Accounting Office, or GAO, after its
own six-month probe into Insight's reports concerning Tulane's previously secret
laboratory work, sternly has criticized the DOD for obfuscating on the issue. Indeed, the
GAO discovered that the DOD long has known about squalene as a possible adjuvant drug and
that the military has been experimenting with squalene-based medicines for more than 10
years, even conducting trials in Thailand involving squalene as an adjuvant for an
anti-AIDS drug.. . . . "Time is critical for many gulf-war-era veterans
who continue to suffer from illnesses and have been waiting for the past seven years for
an explanation about the nature of their illnesses," the GAO report said.
"Independent researchers [at Tulane] ... have concluded that squalene antibodies are
present in sick gulf-war-era veterans who have participated in their research and are a
potential contributing factor to these veterans' illnesses." . . . . Although officials at the DOD told the GAO, according
to the report, that the Defense Department could develop its own tests, it would not do so
because the DOD claimed "it did not use adjuvant formulations with squalene" and
wanted to wait for the research work to be published. The GAO was not impressed:
"Given that gulf-war-era veterans already have waited a significant amount of time
for information on their illnesses, we believe that DOD should act now to expand on the
research already conducted" at Tulane.. . . . The GAO report was stunning. It said that despite
being told by the DOD that gulf-war-era troops were not vaccinated with a squalene-based
drug, it could not "say definitively whether or not [veterans] were given vaccines
with adjuvant formulations containing squalene for a number of reasons." Although DOD
officials claimed to the GAO that they did not administer such vaccines, "they stated
they did not have documentation on the process and results of decision-making related to
the administration of vaccines at the time of the gulf war. Also, some officials involved
in the decisions were no longer employed with DOD ... and we were either unable to locate
them or they declined to be interviewed," the GAO said in its 24-page report
(GAO/NSIAD-99-5).. . . . Rep. Jack Metcalf, the Washington state Republican
who requested the GAO probe, tells Insight that he has been "deeply concerned about
this issue since it first was brought to my attention by veterans that are suffering from
gulf-war illnesses. They had read [the Insight stories] about blood samples of some
gulf-war-era veterans containing antibodies to squalene. They want to know the truth about
why they are sick, and my sole motivation has been and remains still to help these men and
women find the truth.". . . . The three-term congressman, who has been a lone voice
barking at the DOD on the issue, further told this magazine that "with over 100,000
of our veterans suffering, the DOD's history of foot-dragging and obfuscation on this
issue is inexcusable.... We have a moral obligation to stand with the honorable men and
women who sacrificed for this nation in their search for effective treatment of Persian
Gulf War illnesses and demand DOD act on the GAO recommendations.". . . . In ever-increasing numbers since 1991, American vets
have been reporting unexplained illnesses, including symptoms of lupus and rare cancers,
to name but a few. For years the DOD has stonewalled. Enter Tennessee immunologist Pamela
Asa with her initial theory that so much illness might have resulted from a covert
inoculation administered to the troops. Though the DOD attacked Asa and then denied -- as
it since has to Insight and to the GAO -- that it ever used any secret vaccines involving
experimental compounds, the military also initially denied it was experimenting with
squalene.. . . . And the GAO not only confirmed the extensive military
testing using squalene-based adjuvants, it also revealed for the first time that DOD
officials considered but allegedly then decided against using just such a vaccine --
supposedly to protect U.S. troops from potential Iraqi biological or chemical attacks.
Congressional investigators tell Insight that they found these GAO conclusions profoundly
shocking.. . . . Although the GAO and the DOD have not revealed what
immunizations were under consideration for use with squalene as an adjuvant, military and
congressional sources say they believe these must have been antianthrax drugs. "It
would be inconceivable that the Pentagon would have experimented on soldiers involving
anything else," says a senior military official who has tracked Insight's reports on
this issue but asks to remain anonymous. However, according to the GAO, the military
claimed it never experimented with a squalene-based anthrax drug.. . . . The GAO said that while determining what the DOD may
have done to cause 100,000 cases of gulf-war illness has been difficult, the GAO did
uncover squalene-linked human testing protocols going back to 1988 when 500 subjects were
administered an antimalaria vaccine. In 1990, another 12 human subjects were given a
similar concoction and then another 121 in 1994. Between February 1995 and September 1997,
at least 341 people received experimental anti-AIDS vaccines in Thailand involving
squalene as an adjuvant at the same time that 93 people were administered placebos.. . . . But, the stonewalling continues. The DOD still claims
that, despite changing story lines about its experiments with squalene-based drugs, it
never used squalene on gulf-war soldiers, so there is no need to test. In fact, the DOD
told the GAO that "to test veterans seems scientifically and fiscally
irresponsible." The DOD even said the GAO's recommendation "to test for squalene
antibodies showed a lack of understanding of scientific methods.". . . . Adamant refusals by the DOD to test a relatively
inexpensive protocol doesn't make sense to Garry and his people at Tulane or to the GAO,
given the millions of dollars spent to date on far more complicated probes and medical
investigations into the causes of gulf-war illnesses. But it is beginning to look like
something will be done.. . . . House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Stump
of Arizona and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Floyd Spence of South Carolina say
through aides they find the position taken by the DOD alarming. The two chairmen plan to
refer the Tulane and the GAO studies to their committees for evaluation and possible
hearings into the mystery of how antibodies to squalene got into all those sick soldiers.
Meanwhile, GAO stands ready to dig deeper.